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TEXT 27
rajas-tamah-prakrtayah
sama-sila bhajanti vai
pitr-bhuta-prajesadin
sriyaisvarya-prajepsavah
SYNONYMS
rajahthe mode of passion; tamahthe mode of ignorance; prakrtayahof that mentality; sama-silahof the same categories; bhajantido worship; vaiactually; pitrthe forefathers; bhutaother living beings; prajesa-adincontrollers of cosmic administration; sriyaenrichment; aisvaryawealth and power; prajaprogeny; ipsavahso desiring.
TRANSLATION
Those who are in the modes of passion and ignorance worship the forefathers, other living beings and the demigods who are in charge of cosmic activities, for they are urged by a desire to be materially benefited with women, wealth, power and progeny.
PURPORT
There is no need to worship demigods of whatsoever category if one is serious about going back to Godhead. In the Bhagavad-gita (7.20,23) it is clearly said that those who are mad after material enjoyment approach the different demigods for temporary benefits, which are meant for men with a poor fund of knowledge. We should never desire to increase the depth of material enjoyment. Material enjoyment should be accepted only up to the point of the bare necessities of life and not more or less than that. To accept more material enjoyment means to bind oneself more and more to the miseries of material existence. More wealth, more women and false aristocracy are some of the demands of the materially disposed man because he has no information of the benefit derived from Visnu worship. By Visnu worship one can derive benefit in this life as well as in life after death. Forgetting these principles, foolish people who are after more wealth, more wives and more children worship various demigods. The aim of life is to end the miseries of life and not to increase them.
For material enjoyment there is no need to approach the demigods. The demigods are but servants of the Lord. As such, they are duty-bound to supply necessities of life in the form of water, light, air, etc. One should work hard and worship the Supreme Lord by the fruits of one's hard labor for existence, and that should be the motto of life. One should be careful to execute occupational service with faith in God in the proper way, and that will lead one gradually on the progressive march back to Godhead.
Lord Sri Krsna, when He was personally present at Vrajadhama, stopped the worship of the demigod Indra and advised the residents of Vraja to worship by their business and to have faith in God. Worshiping the multidemigods for material gain is practically a perversity of religion. This sort of religious activity has been condemned in the very beginning of the Bhagavatam as kaitava-dharma. There is only one religion in the world to be followed by one and all, and that is the Bhagavata-dharma, or the religion which teaches one to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead and no one else.
Link to this page: https://prabhupadabooks.com/sb/1/2/27 Previous: SB 1.2.26 Next: SB 1.2.28-29
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